Adelaide Coffee

Reschsmooth

So, what is it with Adelaidians and milk?

I went to a number of coffee places in Adelaide over the last week (and we are talking about places that have 2 machines and maybe a total of 5 groups, etc), and the milk on a cappuccino resembles Mt Everest.

I must say, I was generally disappointed with the coffee in the city, although there was one on Rundle St, with two LMs (a 2 and a 3 group), 2 Mazzer Majors (I think), and a decaf grinder and a coffee list covering most types of coffee. Given the way the girl was working the machines, I had some hope. So I asked for a double ristretto macchiatto (sp) with great anticipation. The end result was fantastic although unfortunately, this was on the second last day of our trip to Adelaide.

At least you can pick up a couple of decent bottles of plonk there!

Patrick

Gonzo

I'd forget the coffee and head straight for the plonk. G.

Reschsmooth

Very good idea, although some may consider a glass of shiraz at 8 am a bit uncouth. P

john_2

P Shiraz, yes. Pinot no.!!!!! JD

Reschsmooth

JD No pinot, Shiraz yes, and 'cab sav mate' yes also...and definately no merlot P

admin

It's interesting that when I interviewed Tony D'Angelo (Roaster in Adelaide; summer issue) one of his comments was that coffee in Adelaide in his opinion has been overrated. It seems to be one of those sort of places where people just 'expect' good coffee to be readily available. Interestingly, this goes to the point of one of the posts I made about coffee in Sydney vs Melbourne (vs other cities)- which unfortunately no-one really seems to have embraced 😢 Most people seem to think you can't generalise, and to a certain degree they're right (ie coffee varies cafe by cafe, barista by barista) however the topic of this thread would seem to indicate that there are distinguishable differences in the stage that coffee has reached in different cities - at least that's what I maintain (& i'll go to my grave believing that!) -A 🙂

admin

A, the interesting thing is, comparing Sydney to Adelaide is the number of cafes that seem to have two machines in Adelaide. Whilst I don't go to a lot of cafes in the Sydney CBD, I haven't really noticed too many places with more than, perhaps a 3 group machine. Am I wrong? One thing I did notice was the outlandish corkage restaurants charge in Adelaide - $10-15! You would want to be taking a pretty d**n decent bottle of wine to make it worthwhile! P

admin

P Yes a good Pinot would be worth the slug. However, I have seen corkage of $20 per bottle and to $12 per head. To me that becomes the 'tip'. On charging, last weekend in Paddington (NSW) opposite the markets, I was surprised to see, not only a $1.50 surchage for having a 'drink only' in the cafe, but to also see another 10% slug for daring to eat there on a Saturday. Food and coffee ..... well I won't go into that!!!! JD

admin

Hi all - the last two posts were originally posted by Patrick and JD respectively (last night) but I was meddling on the site and had to re-post. Sorry, blame admin error (hey, good admins are hard to find!). -A 😉

Reschsmooth

On the issue of corkage, I was speaking to a manager at a venue for a wedding reception, asking if we can supply our own wine. They said that's fine, but there is a $12.50 corkage per bottle! If you assume that total time taken to open a bottle, fill say 4 glasses, cleaning the glass, and putting the glass back on the table takes a total of, say, 10 mins, that equates to a rate of about $75 per hour! Does anyone know the general markup on wines at restaurants? (apart from 'exorbitant') "I want the finest wines known to humanity" P

ryan

re wines... my friends have a restuarant in Melbourne. Their markup is usually X 3 or X 4. sometimes x 8 if its been stored for a few years. their last restuarant it was only double markup with a $5.00 corkage. they say somehow you must make the customers drink your expensive wine, without scaring them off with excess charges or corkage. But grog is how they make half their profits, and desert is also their other big earner, X 5-8 profit. ie large cheesecake cost say $10. they sell at $8.00 a slice. if you can believe this, and they tell me its true, their smallest margins come from the main course. not much it most dishes at all, except pasta. as so little work, and cheap ingrediants. But running, chef ,kitchen, staff etc make the main low low margin. he said if all customers only ate a main course he would close. they make by far the biggest profit from wine BY THE GLASS ie $6-8 for basic $6.00 a bottle wine. Because the customers always seem to drink lots of glasses, though even though they originally only intended one. he said when businessmen come in friday night, etc, and start getting carried away ordering scotch by the glass etc the money rolls in. they also make lots of men pretending to be very wine savy and ordering top shelf wine, ie young advertising guys. they order $300.00 bottles some times which my friends bought 2 years ago for 50-80 dollars. I always thought restuarants hated rows of executives drinking spirits. NOT SO im told. (exceptions of course) I will give you an idea how good a restuarant can be, they often make a profit per week of $15,000 dollars. Massive hours as a couple etc, but over a year they do very very well. staff and related headaches aside. and ps went to a well known restuarant last night ordered a Cafe Latte i watched and voila a five second extraction. that cost me $4.50 where do you start. cheers

mimmo124

Along with wine by the glass look at spirits. A bottle of 700ml Jacks/Beam may cost a restaurant $19-$20. They will get 20 drinks out of this at $6 each, minus the purchase price you have $100. I know this is a BIG generalisation but you get my point I am sure 🙂 I think we should ask for our coffee with extraction times added with the weak,soy,latte part. "I will have a 33sec extracted flat white thanks, oh and don't forget my rosetta!" Cheers Mimmo

Matthew_White

I can top that. I worked a function at The Entertainment Centre in Sydney recently as part of the Greek Festival. Some famous Greek performer. Anyway, the stadium seating (whatever you call it) was packed as normal, but the floor was done up with round tables, up to 12 seats per table, formal style. Cheapest seats at those tables were $350, with no food. The drinks available were wine and the usual suspects, but also available was spirits by the bottle 700mL bottle of Johnny Walker? $100 please sir! 😃 oh, you want Johnny Walker Black Label? $120 then!

Brian_Raslan

What a pity you guys don't do some eseach before you come here. Find out some places to visit...maybe from the "Rate your cafe" page or get intouch with some Adeladians. Yes there are a lot of crappy places here like any other place. Why not organize a coffee crawl like we had in Seattle this year. A map with the locations marked and the address and contact details on the back. Somethjing Crema could look into for each city?? All are welcome to visit me any time for a chat and a shot or 2. As far as corkage I charge $9.50. Why? so we can make our margins and to stop people from going to a bottle shop and getting a cheap wine to drink at the cafe. It encourages people to buy in house (I hope) Some time you need to get out of the city to experience a good coffee and even wine. Please contact me next time any of you want to come to Adelaide. Still haven't seen you here John D Regards Brian

Reschsmooth

Actually Brian, I did do some research - word of mouth is a much greater, objective form of referral than speaking with those in the industry. Hence, I asked a number of people I know who have lived/live in Adelaide, who appreciate a good coffee. The result, I found one referred cafe great, another average. Secondly, my trip to Adelaide involved significantly more than going on a cafe crawl, meaning I wasn't going to cab it out of the city too far just for a coffee. Regards Patrick

john_2

Brian Hopefully, I expect to be in your neck of the woods in July. Look forward to visiting your establishment. However, I do have a problem with a corkage of $9.50, you did not say per bottle or per head. I fully understand the need to charge corkage. I usually take wine with me when I go to a restaurant and peruse the wine list. If the wines on the list have some 'imagination' and are reasonably priced then I will order from the list. If the list is below par then I will open my bottle. There are many places that charge 'hefty' corkages and their wine list has been compiled by a 'wet behind the ears' wine sales rep. I could go on, but with a sign on name of 'pinot' I will stop here and go back to the bottle. John

Brian_Raslan

John as always it would be a pleasure to see you.